Spree killer gets another legal lifeline

Dershowitz: Psych exam could be Sampson’s ticket out of death row

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Convicted spree killer Gary Lee Sampson may dodge execution — again — now that a federal judge has ordered that he undergo a psychiatric examination that could result in his being found incompetent to stand trial, a Harvard legal scholar said.

“It certainly opens the door to the possibility that he may not be executed,” former Harvard Law School professor and constitutional lawyer Alan Dershowitz told the Herald.

“You cannot be executed unless you are competent at the time of your execution.”

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